Scottish Arbitration Centre sponsors international Edinburgh moot

Lord Hope of Craighead delivered the opening and closing remarks at the conference, which focused on multi-tier dispute resolution in practice, discussing critical issues surrounding multi-tier clauses and the methods referred therein.

The 6th Edinburgh International Willem Vis Pre-Moot was held after the conference on 11 and 12 March. The Vis Pre-Moot was created by Edinburgh Law School to give students an opportunity to hone their skills prior to the finals for the Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna and its sister moot in Hong Kong.

At this, the 6th annual Pre-Moot, 15 student teams from nine jurisdictions met in Edinburgh and were asked to plead against one another. This included teams from England, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, China and Japan. Teams from Edinburgh and Robert Gordon Universities also competed.

Thanking the centre for its support, Dr Simone Lamont-Black, the founder of the Edinburgh Vis Moot Project, organiser of the conference and lecturer in international trade law at the University of Edinburgh (pictured right), said: “The conference was an extremely informative event and we were very pleased to host such a team of eminent speakers on the topic and especially delighted that the Rt. Hon. Lord Hope agreed to open and close the conference.

“The moot was also a great success, bringing around 120 people together in Edinburgh for the event, including 15 teams from around the world and 45 practitioners.”

Mr Mackenzie said: “We were delighted to be able to support the University of Edinburgh’s dispute resolution conference and the practice competition in advance of the Willem Vis Moot in Vienna.

“It is encouraging to see international students and senior practitioners from far and wide coming to Scotland to attend international arbitration events, with delegates and speakers from England, Germany, Sweden and even Japan involved in the conference and moot. We hope to see more of this as we work towards ICCA 2020.”